Exploring the Business of Online Video

Helping People Find Your Video

Today I’m helping a major online publication get “bookmark and share” functionality in place for their web videos. The ability for a video to “go viral” should be on the radar of anyone who benefits from more views of their video. If I send it to four people, who send it to four people, who send it to four people – all of a sudden you have 64 views before 10am on a Monday! Multiply this out a few factors and you have 1,000 views with only 4 initial viewers. Using tools such as “bookmark and share” you can improve your chances of a viral success. If you aren’t familiar with AddThis.com, you should check it out – its free. You’ll probably start noticing this on quite a few websites you visit.

If you want good, solid traffic to your site then you’ll want to check out Google Adwords. When you “purchase” a keyword, Google puts your ad at the top of the search results in the “paid advertisers” section. You only pay if there is a successful click. Clicks can range from a few cents to $1 or more per click, depending on how competitive the keyword. If you feel you have a video that could go viral – and you think four people would send it to four people each, and so on – why not buy those 4 initial clicks? Or maybe buy 50 or so to hedge your bets. But be aware, if you don’t get any clicks (ie spend any money), Google will assume your “offer” was not attractive to the folks searching for your keyword. They really want you to (insist that you) succeed!